SRK just a call away!

Indo Asian News Service

20 August 2013

Mumbai, Aug 20 (IANS) Shah Rukh Khan Tuesday announced a global integration with Twitter India and ZipDial and the collaboration will allow everyone across the country to follow and engage the superstar on Twitter via SMS.

With immediate effect anyone with a mobile phone can follow Shah Rukh on his Twitter handle - @iamsrk - by dialing or giving a missed call at 09015500555.

The experience works for any phone and any operator network and is completely free, irrespective of whether they have a Twitter account or data-enabled phone.

Commenting on the integration, Shah Rukh said: "I have always believed in the power of technology and use it in various ways to further my connection with my audience.

"In recent years, Twitter has been a magical place for me to engage with my fans. I hope all my fans in India will avail this new service to connect with me."

"I thank ZipDial and Twitter India for helping me inaugurate this innovation and help bring together my entire national audience who don't access Twitter. Very soon I hope to also expand this to multiple countries, languages and platforms," added SRK, who is riding on the success of "Chennai Express".

Rishi Jaitly, Twitter's India market director, said that Twitter is the world's leading real-time information network.

"Hundreds of millions of people follow the people and organizations that interest them. In India, Twitter among other things brings our users closer to their favourite stars and icons. We are pleased to see Shah Rukh Khan and ZipDial use the Twitter platform in this way," he said.

Shah Rukh Khan's latest film, "Chennai Express", which has set records at the box office, has also made Twitter history in India as the first film to be listed in the top trends for more than 10 consecutive days with innovative hashtags and multiple campaigns, said a statement.

The actor's chief digital strategist Shailja Gupta said: "Shah Rukh has a worldwide reach running into more than 3 billion, which is a tough act to match in comparision to some of the internationally renowned celebrities on Twitter.

"However, due to the demographics and limited number of data enabled phones and the exposure of Twitter in India the followings don't reflect the absolute popularity.

With the wide market of feature phones, lot of people in India don't use Twitter and we wanted to reach out to the maximum audience on the platforms they are available on. What better way than to use the SMS technology."

Shailja added: "Our target is to reach 50 million within a year."

Valerie Wagoner, ZipDial's founder & CEO, said that the ZipDial-Twitter service provides an unmatched platform to expand the reach of mobile content.

"We are delighted to help make this service available for Shah Rukh Khan and his vast Indian audience."